The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume IX Part 15

[FN#66] This is a mere rechauffe of the Barber's tale of his Fifth Brother (vol. i. 335). In addition to the authorities there cited I may mention the school reading-lesson in Addison's Spectator derived from Galland's version of "Alnaschar and his basket of Gla.s.s," the Persian version of the Hitopadesa or "Anwar-i-Suhayli (Lights of Canopes) by Husayn Va'iz; the Foolish Sachali of "Indian Fairy Tales" (Miss Stokes); the allusion in Rabelais to the fate of the "Shoemaker and his pitcher of milk"

and the "Dialogues of creatures moralised" (1516), whence probably La Fontaine drew his fable, "La Laitiere et le Pot au lait."

[FN#67] Arab. ' 'Nasik," a religious, a man of Allah from Nask, devotion: somewhat like Salik (Dabistan iii. 251)

[FN#68] The well-known Egyptian term for a peasant, a husbandman, extending from the Nile to beyond Mount Atlas

[FN#69] This is again, I note, the slang sense of "'Azim," which in cla.s.sical Arabic means

[FN#70] Arab "Adab" ; see vol. i. 132. It also implies mental discipline, the culture which leads to excellence, good manners and good morals; and it is sometimes synonymous with literary skill and scholarship. "Ilm al-Adab," says Haji Khalfah (Lane's Lex.), " is the science whereby man guards against error in the language of the Arabs spoken or written."

[FN#71] i.e. I esteem thee as thou deserves".

[FN#72] The style is intended to be worthy of the statesman. In my "Mission to Dahome" the reader will find many a similar scene.

[FN#73] The Bresl. Edit. (vol. viii. 22) reads "Turks" or "The Turk" in lieu of "many peoples."

[FN#74] i.e. the parents.

[FN#75] The humour of this euphuistic Wazirial speech, purposely made somewhat pompous, is the contrast between the unhappy Minister's praises and the result of his prognostication. I cannot refrain from complimenting Mr. Payne upon the admirable way in which he has attacked and mastered all the difficulties of its abstruser pa.s.sages.

[FN#76] 'Arab. "Halummu" plur. of "Halumma"=draw near! The latter form is used by some tribes for all three numbers; others affect a dual and a plural (as in the text). Preston ( Al Hariri, p.

210) derives it from Heb., but the geographers of Kufah and Basrah (who were not etymologists) are divided about its origin.

He translates (p. 221) "Halumma Jarran = being the rest of the tale in continuation with this, i.e. in accordance with it like our "and so forth." And in p. 271, he makes Halumma=Hayya i.e.

hither' (to prayer, etc.).

[FN#77] This is precisely the semi-fatalistic and wholly superst.i.tious address which would find favour with Moslems of the present day they still prefer "calling upon Hercules" to putting their shoulders to the wheel. Mr. Redhouse had done good work in his day but of late he has devoted himself, especially in the "Mesnevi," to a rapprochement between Al-Islam and Christianity which both would reject (see supra, vol. vii. p. 135). The Calvinistic predestination as shown in the term "vessel of wrath," is but a feeble reflection of Moslem fatalism. On this subject I shall have more to say in a future volume.

[FN#78] The inhabitants of temperate climates have no idea what ants can do in the tropics. The Kafirs of South Africa used to stake down their prisoners (among them a poor friend of mine) upon an ant-hill and they were eaten atom after atom in a few hours. The death must be the slowest form of torture; but probably the nervous system soon becomes insensible. The same has happened to more than one hapless invalid, helplessly bedridden, in Western Africa. I have described an invasion of ants in my "Zanzibar," vol. ii. 169; and have suffered from such attacks in many places between that and Dahomey.

[FN#79] Arab. "Sa'lab." See vol. iii 132, where it is a fox. I render it jackal because that cousin of the fox figures as a carnon-eater in Hindu folk-lore, the Hitopadesa, Panchopakhyan, etc. This tale, I need hardly say, is a mere translation; as is shown by the Katha s.s. "Both jackal and fox are nicknamed Joseph the Scribe (Talib Yusuf) in the same principle that lawyers are called landsharks by sailors." (P. 65, Moorish Lotus Leaves, etc., by George D. Cowan and R. L. N. Johnston, London, Tinsleys, 1883.)

[FN#80] Arab. "Sahm mush'ab" not "barbed" (at the wings) but with double front, much used for birding and at one time familiar in the West as in the East. And yet "barbed" would make the fable read much better.

[FN#81] Arab. "la'lla," usually = haply, belike; but used here and elsewhere = forsure, certainly.

[FN#82] Arab. "Maghrib" (or in full Maghrib al Aksa) lit. =the Land of the setting sun for whose relation to "Mauritania" see vol. vii. 220. It is almost synonymous with "Al-Gharb"=the West whence Portugal borrowed the two Algarves, one being in Southern Europe and the other over the straits about Tangier Ceuta; fronting Spanish Trafalgar, i.e. Taraf al Gharb, the edge of the West. I have noted (Pilgrimage i. 9) the late Captain Peel's mis-translation "Cape of Laurels" (Al-Ghar).

[FN#83] Even the poorest of Moslem wanderers tries to bear with him a new suit of clothes for keeping the two festivals and Friday service in the Mosque. See Pilgrimage i. 235; iii. 257, etc.

[FN#84] Arab. "Sayih" lit. a wanderer, subaudi for religious and ascetic objects; and not to be confounded with the "pilgrim"

proper.

[FN#85] i.e. a Religious, a wandering beggar.

[FN#86] This was the custom of the whole Moslem world and still is where uncorrupted by Christian uncharity and contempt for all "men of G.o.d" save its own. But the change in such places as Egypt is complete and irrevocable. Even in 1852 my Dervish's frock brought me nothing but contempt in Alexandria and Cairo.

[FN#87] Arab. "Ya jahil," lit. =O ignorant. The popular word is Ahmak which, however, in the West means a maniac, a madman, a Santon; "Bohli" being= a fool.

[FN#88] The prison according to the practice of the East being in the palace: so the Moorish 'Kasbah," which lodges the Governor and his guard, always contains the jail.

[FN#89] Arab. "Tuwuffiya," lit.=was received (into the grace of G.o.d), an euphemistic and more polite term than "mata"=he died.

The latter term is avoided by the Founder of Chnstianity; and our Spiritualists now say "pa.s.sed away to a higher life," a phrase embodying a theory which, to say the least, is "not proven "

[FN#90] Arab. "Ya Aba al-Khayr"= our my good lord, sir, fellow, etc.

[FN#91] Arab. "Hawi" from "Hayyah," a serpent. See vol. iii. 145.

Most of the Egyptian snake charmers are Gypsies, but they do not like to be told of their origin. At Baroda in Guzerat I took lessons in snake-catching, but found the sport too dangerous; when the animal flees, the tail is caught by the left hand and the right is slipped up to the neck, a delicate process, as a few inches too far or not far enough would be followed by certain death in catching a Cobra. At last certain of my messmates killed one of the captives and the snake-charmer would have no more to do with me.

[FN#92] Arab. "Sallah," also Pers., a basket of wickerwork. This article is everywhere used for lodging snakes from Egypt to Morocco.

[FN#93] Arab. "Mubarak." It is a favourite name for a slave in Morocco, the slave-girl being called Mubarakah; and the proverb being, "Blessed is the household which hath neither M'bark nor M'barkah" (as they contract the words).

[FN#94] The Bresl. Edit. (viii. 48) instead of the Gate (Bab) gives a Badhanj=a Ventilator; for which latter rendering see vol.

i. 257. The spider's web is Koranic (lx.x.xi. 40) "Verily frailest of all houses is the house of the spider."

[FN#95] Prob. from the Persian Wird=a pupil, a disciple.

[FN#96] And yet, as the next page shows the youth's education was complete in his twelfth year. But as all three texts agree, I do not venture upon changing the number to six or seven, the age at which royal education outside the Harem usually begins.

[FN#97] i.e. One for each day in the Moslem year. For these object-lessons, somewhat in Kinder-garten style, see the Book of Sindibad or The Malice of Women (vol. vi. 126).

[FN#98] Arab. "Jahabizah" plur. of "Jahbiz"=acute, intelligent (from the Pers. Kahbad?)

[FN#99] Arab. "Nimr" in the Bresl. Edit. viii. 58. The Mac. Edit.

suggests that the leopard is the lion's Wazir.

[FN#100] Arab "Kaun" lit. =Being, existence. Trebutien (iii. 20) has it "Qu'est-ce que l'etre (G.o.d), I'existence (Creation), l'etre dans['existence (the world), et la duree de l'etre dans l'existence (the other world).

[FN#101] i.e for the purpose of requital. All the above is orthodox Moslem doctrine, which utterly ignores the dictum "ex nihilo nihil fit;" and which would look upon Creation by Law (Darwinism) as opposed to Creation by miracle (e.g. the Mosaic cosmogony) as rank blasphemy. On the other hand the Eternity of Matter and its transcendental essence are tenets held by a host of Gnostics, philosophers and Eastern Agnostics.

[FN#102] This is a Moslem lieu commun; usually man is likened to one suspended in a bottomless well by a thin rope at which a rodent is continually gnawing and who amuses himself in licking a few drops of honey left by bees on the revetement.

[FN#103] A curious pendent to the Scriptural parable of the Uniust Steward.

[FN#104] Arab. "Ruh" Heb. Ruach: lit. breath (spiritus) which in the animal kingdom is the surest sign of life. See vol. v. 29.

Nothing can be more rigidly materialistic than the called Mosaic law.

[FN#105] Arab. "Al-Amr" which may also mean the business, the matter, the affair.

[FN#106] Arab. "Ukab al-kasir." lit. =the breaker eagle.

[FN#107] Arab "Lijam shadid:" the ring-bit of the Arabs is perhaps the severest form known: it is required by the Eastern practice of pulling up the horse when going at full speed and it is too well known to require description. As a rule the Arab rides with a "lady's hand" and the barbarous habit of "hanging on by the curb" is unknown to him. I never pa.s.s by Rotten Row or see a regiment of English Cavalry without wishing to leave riders nothing but their snaffles.

[FN#108] We find this orderly distribution of time (which no one adopts) in many tongues and many forms. In the Life of Sir W.

Jones (vol. i. p. 193, Poetical Works etc.) the following occurs, "written in India on a small piece of paper";--

Sir Edward c.o.ke "Six hours to sleep, in law's grave study six!

Four spend in prayer,--the rest on Heaven fix!"

Rather: "Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven; Ten to the world allot, and all to Heaven!"